It's been five years since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
It was the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, when Adam Lanza, just 20 years old, shot and killed his mother and then drove to the school armed with a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle and a handgun.
He killed 20 children and six adults and wounded two others before ending his own life.
It remains the deadliest mass shooting at a primary or secondary school in U.S. history. It's the fourth deadliest ever in the country.
The investigation concluded Lanza planned the attack, but no motive was ever conclusively determined. He had a history of mental illness but no criminal record. His mother legally owned guns, so he had access to her weapons.
Since then there have been more calls for gun control. Calls for stricter background checks for mental health issues. Calls for teachers and security guards at schools to be armed.
After it was learned Lanza was a fan of violent video games, those came under fire as well.
Advocates on both sides argued and accused. Blame was tossed around. Conspiracy theorists came up with all sorts of whacky ideas they spread far and wide on social media
And then nothing much at all. Nothing but 27 innocents and one killer dead. Nothing but the next mass shooting and the one after and more of the same: The Washington Navy Yards. Umpqua. San Bernardino. Baton Rouge. Dallas. Orlando. Charleston. Las Vegas. Sutherland Springs. Many more.
What can be done? Can anything be done? We don't have the answers. But we as a nation should never stop asking, never stop trying to find those answers.
Just five years since that day at Sandy Hook.
For some reason it seems longer. The whole thing seems farther removed from today.
Maybe that's just the way the human mind copes with these things. Or is it because we as a nation have become so used to mass shootings? We can only hope the latter isn't true and never will be.